Monday Musings – January 6, 2014

I find myself thinking about Abraham this morning. Why would that be? He is the “loser” I’ll be preaching about this Sunday, January 12 as our “Biggest Losers” series continues.

God gave Abraham a promise. It was an impossible, outlandish, unbelievable promise. He would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens. God kept that promise (in a most impossible, outlandish, unbelievable way!). But Abraham had a hard time waiting for God’s timing. All he knew was that he and his wife, Sarah, were childless and they were not getting any younger.

So Abraham took matters into his own hands. He fathered a son with Hagar, Sarah’s maid.

Trusting God is hard. Especially when God is taking longer than we would like. We want to take control of the situation. Leaving God in control seems foolish. “If you want a job done right, do it yourself.” And as result, we get ourselves into all kinds of trouble. Abraham’s story is a classic example.

A pastor named Ben Patterson put it like this:

When God makes a promise, he means it exactly as he says it. He doesn’t want our help. He wants our trust. To wait for God is to bow before his superior wisdom and timing when it comes to the things we want. It is to confess that he (not we) is the one in charge.

Not sure where I’ll go with all this Sunday morning, but one thing is clear. I’ll trust God to guide me. I’ll remind myself that God is in charge, not me.

In Christ,

John

PS: So far my inbox is not jammed with your nominations for “biggest loser” stories that you are giving me permission to use in this series. Surely one of you has done something worse (and funnier) than driving a trenching machine up the wall of a brand new house!